scott mclaughlin

As the second period of Thursday night's game against the Avalanche came to an end, the Bruins were hoping to carry some momentum into the break. They had not yet solved Colorado goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere (as it turned out, they wouldn't beat him in the third, either), but they had completely outplayed the Avs in the second and seemed to be on the verge of breaking through at any moment.

One play changed that. After David Krejci made a nice cut to the middle and put a shot on goal, a post-whistle scrum broke out. That, of course, didn't change anything. We see those all the time.

What killed the Bruins' momentum was Milan Lucic being assessed a 10-minute misconduct for his part in the scuffle. The top-line winger took exception to Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog trying to pull him away from the pile, so Lucic turned, gave Landeskog a few hard shoves and tried to goad him into dropping the gloves.

But Landeskog isn't dumb. He's a team captain at age 20, and he's one of the best players on the young and exciting Avs. He also isn't a fighter. He wouldn't have won a fight against Lucic, so he decided not to fight.

That should've been the end of it, but for some reason Lucic kept going. He ended up throwing one shove too many and was hit with a 10-minute misconduct as a result. Suddenly the Bruins, down by just a goal, were without a top-six forward for half the third period.

After the game, Lucic expressed frustration with the way Landeskog acted. Lucic complained that he was penalized simply because he shoved one of the game's young stars. When asked if he loses respect for players who do what Landeskog did -- join a scrum but not fight -- Lucic said, "If that's the way you want to play, that's your choice." Some reporters took it a step further, calling Landeskog "cowed and scared" and "unbecoming of an NHL team captain."

Landeskog was none of those things. He was smart. He knew that Lucic sometimes lets his frustration boil over, so he stood there and watched as Lucic did himself in. Landeskog hadn't done anything cheap or dirty; he had simply jumped into a post-whistle scrum and grabbed an opponent. That's something that happens every game, and something Lucic needs to be able to handle without losing his cool.

"We don't have anything to prove fighting with him," Colorado coach Patrick Roy said. "I don't believe fighting is that important in our game. And at the same time, there's no need for Gabe to go into the box for 10 minutes or 15 minutes. We need him on the ice. He's one of our best players, and I thought that was smart of him."

Bingo.

The Bruins are a tough team. They want everyone to know that, and they're going to remind the league of it throughout the season. But they need to do a better job of picking their spots. Already this season, we've seen several instances of them dropping their gloves at times when it didn't really make much sense to do so.

There was Jarome Iginla on opening night, fighting Tampa Bay's Radko Gudas after a clean hit while the Bruins had the lead and momentum. Earlier in Thursday's game, Shawn Thornton went with Patrick Bordeleau after Bordeleau landed a perfectly clean hit on Dennis Seidenberg -- this, too, came at a time when the B's were controlling the action. And then there was Lucic trying to get at Landeskog.

Iginla and Thornton's fights didn't really cost the Bruins, but the excessive aggressiveness finally caught up to them when Lucic went one shove too far.

The merits of fighting in any capacity are debatable, but there's no debating that it's part of the Bruins' game. They're not going to stop fighting, and it would be pointless to even suggest that they consider it.

But the Bruins do need to be able to restrain themselves in situations where dropping the gloves is going to benefit their opponent more than themselves. And they need to understand that other teams can use their toughness against them. That's exactly what Landeskog did Thursday night, and Lucic walked right into the trap.

Greg and Chris talk with Mike Reiss from ESPN Boston in hour 2 of NFL Sunday to discuss a variety of offseason happenings with the Pats and throughout the league. Greg and Chris also get into the NFL Draft and where Mariota and Winston will go.

Mike Reiss calls the guys to talk about the offseason news for the Pats. He talks about the Pats/Jets tampoering fiasco, free agency, where he sees Ridley and Connolly ending up, if the Patriots would be interested in Reggie Wayne and more.

In the first hour of the show, Greg and Chris discuss the news coming out of the owners' meetings this week and rule changes. Belichick's blow-up over the league not wanting to spend on endzone cameras was well documented and the guys react. They also talk about the Jets ridiculous tampering charges, free agents still lingering out there, where Stevan Ridley will land and the RB position in New England. Dickerson and Price briefly discuss the adventures of Tom Brady before being joined by WEEI.com's Mike Petraglia to talk all things Pats in the offseason.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

Mut, Tomase, and Bradford kick things off talking about Shane Victorino taking offense to people reading into some comments he made about trading for Cole Hamels. They also discuss Blake Swihart and how soon he could be up if Christian Vazquez starts the season on the DL.

Joe Kelly joined the Hot Stove show where he talked about being ready for his next spring training start after a biceps ailment forced him out of his last outing, he talks about his NCAA brackets and how teammate Wade Miley has a perfect bracket still.

Peter Chiarelli joined the Sunday Skate crew to talk about the Bruins playoff push heading into the final handful of games of the regular season. Chiarelli talked about avoiding some of the overly negative feedback he gets while realizing that the team does have real issues. He discusses what went down at the trade deadline and if he was happy with the outcome, Lucic having a down year and underperforming, the salary cap and if he considers it as big of an issue as it's been made out to be and what the future holds for the team.

It's a big hour #2 for the Sunday Skate dudes - they talk about the B's defenseman and what the future looks like at that position, with both moves the team can make and younger guys in the AHL. They also get into the Bruins philosophy on bringing guys up and sending them back down and how players deal with that. Finally, the boys are joined by Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli to discuss EVERYTHING.

The Sunday Skate crew gets the show going discussing the Bruins big, impressive victory over the NY Rangers yesterday. What can you take from that game? According to LB - Lyndon Byers - who called the guys from the road, not a lot. LB drops a dime on what was going on with the Rangers yesterday. DJ and Joe discuss Claude's lines and groupings and the importance of Ryan Spooner. They also get into Lucic, his contributions this year and if he can turn things around.

With the Wells report seemingly wrapping up (we hope), Tim and Lou got to talking about possible fines and punishments the Patriots must face. It's possible that the Patriots will face a small fine, but should they take that laying down? The conversation brings out a little passion from BOTH sides.